Is That You Macduff? (poetry reading)

Is That You Macduff? (Harvey Dog) 4:12

December, 2019
Soliloquy, Sounds

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Poem

Your creaky steps
creep closer to
my chamber door,
past my books
of solitude
clothed in their
dusty spines

The candles are lit,
the fragile flame
could be extinguished
with the breath
of the wind

Is that you, Macduff?

Can not the flame
of the past
be snuffed out
with the passing of time?
Can not the hope of the future
assuage old grievances,
placate past actions,
past regrets?

Is that you, Macduff?

Haunting my dreams
my waking hours?
Enclosed within the prism
of painful memories
I whisper the truth,
but it’s lies
that scream forth
from trembling lips

Ah! The slight touch
of a shady kiss,
was it my imagination?

Is that you, Macduff?

Will the past be my downfall?
Will I be nailed to your cross?
Will I be chained to your electric fence?
Lock the doors, shut the gates,
secure me, keep me
from the rabble!

Macduff! Macduff!
There is no paradise!
There is no utopia!
There is no garden of eden!
It is but a walking shadow…

What?
What emits forth from your lips?
Is this a dagger in my hand??
So it is Macduff!
Oh Macduff, you clever rascal!

***

My guilt is carried
by the wind
to all the stars
of the universes,
alas, the foundations of
my soul are cracking,
oh why, why have I been cursed?

Is that you, Macduff?

Are you unable to leave the past?
Your perspective is not mine,
Time is malleable, ever-changing,
as is one’s soul
as is one’s heart

Is your cynicism so deep?
Is it chiseled in stone?
Have you no faith?
How sad!
You are stuck in a past
I no longer recognize
nor believe in

Is that you, Macduff?

Are you still breathing,
still haunting my dreams
where fair is foul
and foul is fair?
Oh, will you not avert
your bloody stare!?
What’s done is done

The noise outside my chambers
is mere distraction
from the horror
that lives within my soul

Is that you, Macduff?

Have you brought
serenity?
conciliation?

Can you not
offer the gift
of peace?

O horror horror horror
of the guilt stained soul!
There is no peace!

The rattling outside
my chamber door
reverberates, shakes

Is that you, Macduff?

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Notes

• I was planning to create a video for this poem/soliloquy but felt a performance would capture the piece better than drawings. It probably won’t happen…on to the next project!
• When I told a friend at work the title of the poem, she replied: “Like Duff beer?” I loved it! That’s funny.

Written: November-December 2019

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